The Hesperides & Noble Numbers

Appendix I.

HERRICK'S POEMS IN WITTS RECREATIONS.

Both Mr. Hazlitt and Dr. Grosart have slightly misrepresented the relation of Hesperides to the anthology known as Witts Recreations: Mr. Hazlitt by mistakes as to their respective contents; Dr. Grosart (after a much more careful collation) by taking down the date of the wrong edition. To put matters straight four editions have to be examined:--

I. "Witts Recreations. Selected from the finest Fancies of Moderne Muses, With a Thousand out Landish Proverbs. London. Printed for Humph. Blunden at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1640. 8vo."

This general title-page is engraved by W. Marshall. The Outlandish Proverbs were selected by George Herbert, and, like the first part, have a printed title-page of their own.

II. "Witts Recreations. Augmented with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. London. Printed for Humph. Blunden: at ye Castle in Cornhill, 1641. 8vo."

In this, and subsequent editions, Marshall's title-page is re-engraved and the Outlandish Proverbs are omitted. The printed title-page reads: "Wit's Recreations. Containing 630 Epigrams, 160 Epitaphs. Variety of Fancies and Fantasticks, Good for Melancholly humours. London. Printed by Thomas Cotes," etc. The epigrams vary considerably from the selection in the previous edition.

III. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie, and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie...."

In the Museum copy of this edition the imprint to the engraved title has been cropped away. The printed title-page reads: "Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to walke in. Of Epigrams, 630: Epitaphs, 180: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance, Good for melancholy Humors. Printed by R. Cotes for H. B. London, 1645. 8vo." Two poems of Herrick's occur in the additional "Fancies and Fantasticks," first printed in this edition, viz.: The Description of a Woman (not contained in Hesperides), and the Farewell to Sack.

IV. "Witts Recreations refined. Augmented, with Ingenious Conceites for the wittie and Merrie Medicines for the Melancholie. Printed by M. S. sould by I. Hancock in Popes head Alley, 1650. 8vo."

The printed title-page reads: "Recreations for Ingenious Head-peeces. Or, A Pleasant Grove for their Wits to Walke in. Of Epigrams, 700: Epitaphs, 200: Fancies, a number: Fantasticks, abundance. With their Addition, Multiplication, and Division. London, Printed by M. Simmons," etc. In this edition many of the Epigrams are omitted and more than one hundred fresh ones added. Additions are also made to the Epitaphs and Fancies and Fantasticks. Of the new Epigrams and Poems no less than seventy-two had been printed two years earlier in Herrick's Hesperides, and ten others were added in 1654 from the same source.

Witts Recreations was again reprinted in 1663, 1667, and perhaps oftener. In 1817 it was issued as vol. ii. of a collection of Facetiæ, of which Mennis and Smith's Musarum Deliciæ and Wit Restor'd formed vol. i. On the title-page Witts Recreations is said to be printed from edition 1640, with all the wood engravings and improvements of subsequent editions, and in the preface it is explained to be "reprinted after a collation of the four editions, 1640, 41, 54, and 63, for the purpose of bringing together in one body all the various articles spread throughout, and not to be found in any one edition". This 1817 reprint was re-issued by Hotten in 1874, and this re-issue, as his references to pagination show, was the one used by Dr. Grosart. The date 1640 on the title-page may have caught his eye and led to his mistaken allusion to the "prior publication" of the Herrick poems in 1640, whereas Hesperides was published in 1648, and the editions of Witts Recreations which contain anything of his besides the Description of a Woman and A Farewell to Sack, in 1650, 1654, etc.

In the Notes to the present edition I have drawn attention to all variations in the text of the poems as printed by Herrick and the later editors, and now subjoin a complete list of the poems under the titles which they take in Witts Recreations, with their numbers in this edition.

1645 Edition.

128. A Farewell to Sack. [Not in Hesp.] The Description of a Woman.

1650 Edition Adds:--

123. A Tear sent to his M^is. 159. The Cruel Maid. 162. His Misery. 172. With a Ring to Julia. 200. On Gubbs. 206. On Bunce. 239. On Guesse. 241. On a Painted Madam. 310. On a Child. 311. On Sneape. 328. A Foolish Querie. 340. A Check to her Delay. 352. Nothing New. 357. Long and Lazy. 367. To a Stale Lady. 374. Gain and Gettings. 379. On Doll. 380. On Skrew. 381. On Linnit. 400. On Raspe. 407. On Himself. 408. Love and Liberty. 409. On Skinns. 428. On Craw. 434. On Jack and Jill. 517. Change. 534. To Julia. 572. On Umber. 600. Little and Loud. 616. Abroad with the Maids. 637. On Lungs. 640. On a Child. 644. On an Old Man, a Residentiary. 648. On Cob. 649. On Betty. 650. On Skoles. 661. Ambition. 666. On Zelot. 669. On Crab. 675. On Women's Denial. 676. Adversity. 693. On Tuck. 697. Adversity. 703. On Trigg. 711. Possessions. 735. Maids' Nays. 743. On Julia's Weeping. 752. No Pains No Gains. 761. Alvar and Anthea. 772. A Hymn to Bacchus. 776. Anger. 791. Verses. 795. On Bice. 796. On Trencherman. 797. Kisses. 832. On Punchin. 838. On a Maid. 840. Beauty. 846. Writing. 849. Satisfaction. 873. On Love. 881. ll. 13, 14, Sharp Sauce. 886. On Lulls. 902. Truth. 910. On Ben Jonson. 946. An Hymn to Love. 950. Leaven. 1025. On Boreman. 1084. On Love. 1085. On Gut. 1106. On Rump. 1119. Sauce for Sorrows. 1126. Of this Book.

1654 Edition Adds:--

49. Cherry Pit. 85. On Love. 92. The Bag of a Bee. 208. To make much of Time. 235. On an Old Batchelor. 238. Another. (On the Rose.) 253. Counsel not to Love. 260. How the Violets came blue. 337. A Vow to Cupid. 446. The Farewell to Love and to his Mistress.

Appendix Ii.

HERRICK'S FAIRY POEMS AND THE DESCRIPTION OF THE KING AND QUEENE OF FAYRIES PUBLISHED 1635.

The publisher's freak, by which Herrick's three chief Fairy poems ("The Fairy Temple; or, Oberon's Chapel," "Oberon's Feast," and "Oberon's Palace") are separated from each other, is greatly to be regretted. The last two, both dedicated to Shapcott, are distinctly connected by their opening lines, and "Oberon's Chapel," dedicated to Mr. John Merrifield, Herrick's other fairy-loving lawyer, of course belongs to the same group. All three were probably first written in 1626 and cannot be dissociated from Drayton's Nymphidia, published in 1627, and Sir Simeon Steward's "A Description of the King of Fayries clothes, brought to him on New-yeares day in the morning, 1626 [O. S.], by his Queenes Chambermaids". In 1635 there was published a little book of a dozen leaves, most kindly transcribed for this edition by Mr. E. Gordon Duff, from the unique copy at the Bodleian Library. It is entitled:--

"A | Description | of the King and Queene of | Fayries, their habit, fare, their | abode pompe and state. | Beeing very delightfull to the sense, and | full of mirth. | [Wood-cut.] London. | Printed for Richard Harper, and are to be sold | at his shop, at the Hospitall gate. 1635."

Fol. 1 is blank; fol. 2 occupied by the title-page; ff. 3, 4 (verso blank) by a letter "To the Reader," signed: "Yours hereafter, If now approved on, R. S.," beginning: "Courteous Reader, I present thee here with the Description of the King of the Fayries, of his Attendants, Apparel, Gesture, and Victuals, which though comprehended in the brevity of so short a volume, yet as the Proverbe truely averres, it hath as mellifluous and pleasing discourse, as that whose amplitude contains the fulnesse of a bigger composition"; on fol. 5 (verso blank) occurs the following poem [spelling here modernised]:--

"Deep-skilled Geographers, whose art and skill Do traverse all the world, and with their quill Declare the strangeness of each several clime, The nature, situation, and the time Of being inhabited, yet all their art And deep informèd skill could not impart In what set climate of this Orb or Isle, The King of Fairies kept, whose honoured style Is here inclosed, with the sincere description Of his abode, his nature, and the region In which he rules: read, and thou shalt find Delightful mirth, fit to content thy mind. May the contents thereof thy palate suit, With its mellifluous and pleasing fruit: For nought can more be sweetened to my mind Than that this Pamphlet thy contentment find; Which if it shall, my labour is sufficed, In being by your liking highly prized. "Yours to his power, "R. S."

This is followed (pp. 1-3) by: "A Description of the Kings of Fayries Clothes, brought to him on New-Yeares day in the morning, 1626, by his Queenes Chambermaids:--

"First a cobweb shirt, more thin Than ever spider since could spin. Changed to the whiteness of the snow, By the stormy winds that blow In the vast and frozen air, No shirt half so fine, so fair; A rich waistcoat they did bring, Made of the Trout-fly's gilded wing: At which his Elveship 'gan to fret The wearing it would make him sweat Even with its weight: he needs would wear A waistcoat made of downy hair New shaven off an Eunuch's chin, That pleased him well, 'twas wondrous thin. The outside of his doublet was Made of the four-leaved, true-loved grass, Changed into so fine a gloss, With the oil of crispy moss: It made a rainbow in the night Which gave a lustre passing light. On every seam there was a lace Drawn by the unctuous snail's slow pace, To which the finest, purest, silver thread Compared, did look like dull pale lead. His breeches of the Fleece was wrought, Which from Colchos Jason brought: Spun into so fine a yarn No mortal wight might it discern, Weaved by Arachne on her loom, Just before she had her doom. A rich Mantle he did wear, Made of tinsel gossamer. Beflowered over with a few Diamond stars of morning dew: Dyed crimson in a maiden's blush, Lined with humble-bees' lost plush. His cap was all of ladies' love, So wondrous light, that it did move If any humming gnat or fly Buzzed the air in passing by, About his neck a wreath of pearl, Dropped from the eyes of some poor girl, Pinched, because she had forgot To leave clean water in the pot."

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